When she finally saw Neiki, Tsume Inuzuka understood why Shikaku Nara was here in person.
She looked at Neiki, then at Shikaku.
Shikaku quietly stepped between them, blocking her line of sight. He shook his head ever so slightly.
The message was clear.
No matter what happens—don't move.
"Why are you here?" Shikaku asked, his tone calm but guarded.
"Looking for Hanabi," Neiki replied, glancing at him as if it were the most ordinary thing in the world. "It was the dying wish of my clan leader. I have to fulfill it."
…This bastard.
"You have five minutes left," Shikaku reminded coldly.
"There's no need to rush." Neiki's gaze slid past Shikaku and landed on Tsume. He grinned and pointed lazily at the ruined Inuzuka compound behind her."Long time no see, Tsume-senpai. I can smell the dog meat from here—it's making me hungry. Mind if I take one for a midnight snack?"
Tsume's eyes went bloodshot in an instant.
"—Die!!!"
"Shadow Possession Jutsu!"
Tsume lunged, but Shikaku had been expecting exactly this. His shadow shot out like a spear, locking down Tsume and the nearby Kō Inuzuka before they could move.
The Inuzuka were famously straightforward and hot-blooded; Tsume, in particular, was notorious even among them. Shikaku had never truly believed she'd be able to endure Neiki's provocations, and the moment he heard "dog meat," he knew it was over.
Looking at Tsume's feral expression, suppressed only by his jutsu, Shikaku could only sigh inwardly. He knew he'd just added himself to her hate list.
"Are you satisfied now?" he asked Neiki, face dark.
"Not bad," Neiki chuckled. He gave Tsume another look, then stepped past Shikaku and walked into the Inuzuka grounds.
"What do you think you're doing?" someone snapped.
"Looking for Hanabi. What if she's here?" Neiki answered casually.
"If she was here, she'd already be dead because of your bombs," the jōnin assigned to monitor him shot back.
Neiki ignored him and disappeared into the wreckage.
A short while later, he emerged again, dragging a charred dog by the scruff.
Shikaku turned his head away, saying nothing. When it came to provoking people, Neiki was a natural-born specialist.
"This one's cooked just right." Neiki hefted the roasted dog. "Want to split it, Shikaku-senpai?"
The rich, greasy aroma of roasted meat drifted through the air. No one responded.
Neiki shrugged, then fished two coins from his sleeve and dropped them at Tsume's feet, smiling.
"I don't take things for free."
With that, he turned and started toward his next destination.
"Do you really hate Konoha that much?" Shikaku suddenly called after him.
Beyond the Hyuga massacre, every move Neiki had made seemed driven by a pure, relentless desire to hurt Konoha. He'd annihilated the Hyuga, helped trigger the Uchiha rebellion, released the Nine-Tails, detonated explosive traps all over the village, and now he was openly sowing division among the clans.
Neiki just waved a hand dismissively, never looking back.
He'd explained himself more than once already.
He didn't hate Konoha. He just wanted to see it decline.
And a village as big as Konoha wouldn't crumble from a single strike. Pushing it downhill would be a long, drawn-out process.
Leaving Konoha's downfall entirely to the future Fourth Great Ninja War and the other great nations felt too uncertain—that wasn't Neiki's style.
On the surface, Konoha already looked devastated: the Hyuga were gone, the Uchiha had fled. But its actual military potential was still considerable.
Genno's vast web of explosive tags embedded beneath Konoha could destroy much of the village's infrastructure, create chaos, and weaken morale—but used alone, it wouldn't kill that many shinobi. It would devastate the buildings, not the people. That was why the original "Hono/Hidden Haze" plan had required an inside agent in the first place.
And a straightforward, all-out assault would only unite Konoha against a common enemy, hardening its "Will of Fire." That was exactly what Neiki wanted to avoid.
With the Fourth Great Ninja War looming, he had no intention of letting Konoha charge into it with high morale.
So:
Murder.
Psychological warfare.
Internal division.
Those were the three pillars of his grand blueprint for Konoha's Decline.
And the best possible use of the hundreds of thousands of explosive tags Genno had left buried beneath the village.
…
When Neiki finally left, Shikaku released his shadow jutsu and cautiously watched Tsume.
"If you're really that angry… you can hit me," he offered.
Tsume said nothing. She just stared in the direction Neiki had gone. Kō Inuzuka, on the other hand, visibly perked up at the suggestion.
After a long silence, Tsume stooped to pick up the two coins Neiki had dropped and placed them into a special box used for preserving evidence.
"I'll remember today," she said quietly.
She would remember her hatred for Neiki—
And her humiliation at Shikaku's hands.
Shikaku's face tightened. The worst-case outcome had arrived: Tsume had been successfully pushed away.
"This is exactly what Neiki wants," he said, his voice dry.
"Does that matter?" Tsume shot back, shaking her head. "You should've taken him up on that offer and eaten half the dog."
"After all, my clan's destruction is the result of you cooperating with him, isn't it?"
The sequence of events did make it look that way… but… but…
Even Shikaku, usually so sharp-tongued, found himself unable to come up with a retort. Tsume had lumped him in with Neiki as a co-conspirator, and there wasn't a damn thing he could say that wouldn't sound like an excuse.
All he could do was hope her anger might cool someday.
"For what it's worth, it was for Konoha's sake…" he said at last. "As for rebuilding your clan, the Nara will take the lead on support."
"No need. The Inuzuka clan… has no reconstruction plans for now." Tsume's voice was steady, but there was a hollowness in her eyes. "I think it's time I start considering my clan's future."
Shikaku's gaze sharpened. There was an unspoken threat in her words.
Was she thinking of leaving Konoha altogether?
He opened his mouth to respond—
And an explosion split the night.
…
Neiki worked fast.
Six minutes into his allotted ten, a Konoha ninja finally snapped and tried to assassinate him. In response, Neiki calmly pressed the first button on his remote.
The Akimichi clan compound went up in flames.
Thanks to early evacuation, there were no casualties. Even so, as Chōza Akimichi watched the blaze devour family treasures and food stores, his face twisted with fury.
"Ah—my snacks…" Chōji sobbed beside him.
Hiruzen rushed over to confirm the situation and nearly sagged with relief when he learned no one had been killed.
"I'm sorry, Chōza. It was a medical-ninja… We never imagined she'd try to assassinate Nei—"
Before he could finish, another explosion thundered through the village.
The Ninja Library—repository of countless Konoha jutsu scrolls—collapsed into rubble.
Neiki's voice drifted mockingly from afar:
"You Konoha people are really something—assassination attempts again?"
Hiruzen stared blankly toward the smoke for a few seconds, then his expression turned black.
Who tried to assassinate Neiki this time?
Didn't they remember he had the Byakugan?
And why hadn't the two jōnin assigned to watch him stopped it?!
Questions and anger surged through his mind, but he forced himself to calm down. The more he thought about it, the more he suspected Neiki was deliberately setting up these "opportunities" to fuel internal blame and hatred.
"There's only one minute left…"
Both Neiki and Konoha forces were still combing through the ruins, trying to locate Hanabi before the time limit ran out. At this point, though, it hardly mattered.
Whether he found her or not, Neiki had publicly agreed to leave Konoha after ten minutes and not set off any further explosions.
The promise was only verbal, and in theory either side could break it—but Neiki couldn't afford to. If he pushed them any further, the enraged Konoha shinobi would be willing to tear him apart even at the cost of more explosions. In other words, that promise chained Neiki, not Konoha.
From Konoha's perspective, it was still worth honoring—for now.
The last seconds ticked by without another blast.
Except…
"Neiki located Hanabi at the last moment," an Anbu reported.
"Where did he find her?" Hiruzen asked, frowning.
"…At his house, Hokage-sama."
Hiruzen clenched his fists so hard his knuckles went white.
Four words flashed through his mind:
Self-directed. Self-performed.
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